EYFS

Infant update February 2019

We have been doing lots of practical investigating in Science this term!

We started our topic by investigating the properties of different materials such as wood, glass, plastic, paper and metal. We sorted the materials by different criteria such as bendy, hard, rough, old and shiny and tested our friend’s knowledge with a mystery bag game.

Then we investigated how waterproof different materials were by making an umbrella for Ted. We had to use our skills of prediction, observation, questioning and use our findings to answer our questions. We worked brilliantly with our partners to find our answers.

We’ve had a chilly start to this term and we have enjoyed using our outdoor area to investigate the properties of ice and water too.

We are really looking forward to our Science day with Slingsby school where will be using our knowledge of materials to do some building!

December 7th update

Infant Class news

This week we visited Elim Church Centre in Malton to explore their interactive nativity. We loved travelling back in time to discover what happened at the first Christmas. We met a wise man, a shepherd, Mary and Joseph on our journey as well as a very cheeky camel named Humphrey! “Humphrey was the funniest. He was cheeky and he kept popping up and scaring me!” said Jack B. Iris said, “I really liked the bit with baby Jesus at the end,” and Fern explained “The wise man followed the star and found baby Jesus!”

Pupils’ Poppies and Poems for Peace

As well as contributing to the ‘Poppies in Peace’ Exhibition at the Beck Isle Museum, all Gillamoor School pupils have marked the 100th Anniversary of the end of the First World War.

All week, the infants talked about the meaning of the WW1 100th Anniversary and wrote poems and letters.

The juniors talked about the importance of Remembrance Sunday, made poppies and on the back, wrote messages to the soldiers who had died.

In the centre of Gillamoor, the children have put up a display of poppies for Remembrance. After hanging their work on the trees the school held a minute’s silence.

One of the poppies says: ‘You’ve been brave, you’ve been true. Now rest in peace.’

Friday 11th May 2018

We all had a lovely Easter holiday and have been very busy since returning to school!

'Rosie's walk' by Pat Hutchins. In the morning we went for a walk around Rosedale Abbey just like Rosie the hen and practised using positional language.In the week before the holidays began, we spent a very enjoyable day working with the Infants at Rosedale Abbey School. We used the Rosedale environment to stimulate some maths and literacy work and based our day on the book

We all followed over the steps in the wall.

In the afternoon we wrote letters and postcards from Rosie on her holidays! Nathan wrote “I am on holiday and it is sunny” and Jessie wrote “Dear Mr S. Fox, I am having a brilliant holiday so far. I am sleeping in a hotel.”

This week in literacy we have started to learn about poetry and we will be linking our work to minibeasts in science. In class we have been carefully watching our frog spawn and toad spawn develop and are really looking forward to seeing the tadpoles grow their legs. We have learned about the life-cycle of a frog and have written 'Frog Facts' information sheets.

Jack B wrote ”Frogs live in ponds and on land because they are amphibians” and Nathan wrote ”Frogs like to eat snails and flies.” Oscar said “Frogs like to live in damp and dark places.”rog Facts' information sheets.

We will be writing minibeast poems later this week which will be good fun!

In maths we have been measuring length in centimetres and metres and had fun rolling vehicles down a ramp, measuring how far they travelled. The Year 2 children drew their own table to record the results and then interpreted them.

EYFS had a different challenge-they had to use cubes to measure and they had to find out which of teddy's scarves was the longest.

Here we used string to measure a curved line!

In art we have again linked our work to minibeasts and have learned about the work of French artist, Henri Matisse. We made a snail picture together on the carpet just like 'The Snail' by Matisse by cutting out shapes like he did. We learned that he called this making a montage or 'Painting with scissors'. We called ourselves 'Mini-Matisses' as we made our own snail pictures!

In class we have talked about some of the things that we have particularly enjoyed over the last few weeks, and Lucinda andSeth have written this for us on the computer...The class have been looking after tadpoles. What we did was we make our own frog fact sheet. Here are some facts-did you know frogs have no teeth? The eggs eat the jelly. The class have looked at a famous artist called Henri Matisse. His famous picture was the snail. We made a collage of a snail and then everyone did our own collage, some were a ploughed field and an ice lolly in front of a beach. In maths we have been measuring in centimetres and metres, we measured the distance of car travel and we also measured height.

Friday 23rd February 2018

We have returned from half term refreshed and raring to go!

This week in literacy we have started to look at recounts, based on the story Farmer Duck. We have looked at how Duck spends his day and have tried writing sentences in the style of a recount and in the past tense. We also imagined we were Duck and tried to write about how we would feel, using conjunctions to extend our sentences. Seth wrote “Washing up is annoying when I get my feathers wet.”

In maths we have continued to look at shape, particularly properties of shape and lines of symmetry. EYFS have made some fantastic shape pictures and models. Fern was very creative and used hexagons to make a flower.

We have also been looking at plants in science and have set up an experiment to see what plants need to grow. We talked about working scientifically and have set up five experiments around the classroom where we have removed a variable from each of our seeds. The children are very excited to see what will happen.

Finally, Seth, Lucinda and Rufus have been working on their ICT skills to write a bit about their favourite activities over the past week. Over to them…..

Fern and Nathan went to Slingsby school to play with the Reception children from Slingsby. Our topic is about trees. We have a Chinese takeaway in the classroom. We have planted beens. We have been reading Farmer Duck and we have been writing about the animals plan. With are plants we are doing an experiment to see if plants need every thing they need. We’ve also been doing forist schools.

By Seth, Lucinda and Rufus.

Image Gallery

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Friday 9th February

Well, this half term has absolutely flown by! The Infants have been very busy and came back from their Christmas break refreshed and ready to get started. After saying a fond farewell to Mrs Teasdale, we welcomed Mrs Owrid back in our second week.

In maths we have covered lots of topics. We began by looking at making crocodile mouths with lollipop sticks and used them to help us understand “greater than” and “less than”. We have also explored place value, doubling and have started on 3D shapes. Phew! EYFS have enjoyed looking at these topics with us in more practical ways. Fern and Nathan really got stuck into making shapes in the playground. After persevering with her construction and counting the faces, Fern was delighted with the results.

In literacy we have been looking at lots of Percy the Parkeeper stories. We have written character descriptions and have explored story settings. The children also had a go at instruction writing and had a go at writing instructions on what to wear on a wintry day. Very apt bearing in mind the recent snowy weather, which the children have really enjoyed

We have finised this half term writing riddles based on “Who am I?” See if you can persuade your child to retell the riddle so that you can solve it!

In ICT we were delighted when the Bee Bots made a reappearance. We read the book “What the Ladybird Heard” and using a map based on the farmyard, recreated the route Hefty Hugh and Lanky Len took. The children really enjoyed this activity and EYFS are showing great aptitude in using language such as “clockwise” and “quarter turn”. Excellent!

Finally, our topic this half term is “What makes Rivers Wiggly?”

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Friday 25th January

January update infants

The class have been learning about animals in science.

Our topic is rivers. We have also read about Percy the Park Keeper books the names of them were One snowy night, One warm fox, The hedgehog’s balloon and After the storm.

I liked science the best because I love animals.

By Seth

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Friday 8th December

What a busy few weeks we have had in the Infants class!

In literacy we have been looking at a fantastic book, Oh No George! George is a well-meaning dog who tries to be good but sometimes just cannot stop himself from being naughty! We have had great fun learning the story and exploring George’s character. This also led to work on speech marks and exclamation marks. We also had a think about times when we might have behaved a little bit like George! Jack F told us he’d been a little bit naughty by making his Daddy jump and Nathan confessed that sometimes he made his bedroom messy.

In maths we have been looking at fractions and finding ½ and ¼. The children in EYFS explored sharing and how different shapes could be folded and coloured in half. All the children showed a good understanding of a half and that it should be equal. Great work!

In our topic we have been looking at Shakespeare’s birthday and this lead to some fantastic work on life in Tudor times too. The children role played a significant event from Shakespeare’s life. One group showed the building of the Globe theatre and another his wedding to Anne Hathaway. We videoed the children’s performances and they loved watching themselves back on screen. Some budding thespians amongst us it seems!

We did take some time out to enjoy the snowy weather and all collected a sample of snow to examine and comment upon using our senses. None of the children believed me when I said that we could listen to snow, but we did and all agreed that they could hear it cracking. We also found out about why it snows. See if the children can remember how cold it has to be for it to snow!

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Friday 10th November

Another busy week has simply flown by.

In maths we have been looking at measuring. Year 2 used rulers to learn about centimetres, metres and millimetres with some really accurate measuring. At the end of the week we moved on to estimating and took our rulers into the playground to estimate and measure the basketball hoops! EYFS have looked at non-standard measures and on Tuesday Nathan drew around Oscar and Jack B and used his feet to measure who was the longest!

In literacy we have started to look at poetry, particularly animal poems. We learned that poems can rhyme and had a go at coming up with our own rhyming words, nonsense or otherwise. We all loved the Ning Nang Nong by Spike Milligan, a totally nonsense poem!

Our topic has moved onto looking at Remembrance Day and we have created some wonderful poppy artwork. We ended the week with some handwriting practice and produced a wonderful verse of the famous poem by John McCrae.

Finally we listened to some music associated with remembrance, The Last Post and Nimrod by Elgar. Nathan said the music made him want to “sit and listen” and Lucinda said it was “smooth”. Fantastic appreciation, I’m sure you’ll agree!

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Friday 20th October 2017

This week we have been looking at all things Autumn. The Infants gave a fantastic performance in the Harvest Festival service, reciting the poem Autumn Days (with actions!) and sharing their fantastic wooden toys and harvest mice finger puppets. We also tried composing our own acrostic Autumn poems, taking inspiration from a walk around the village. We used our senses to listen, look and feel how the seasons change. The children collected leaves, berries ad twigs which we brought back to the classroom to stimulate our writing and then used to decorate our finished work.

We also used some natural produce, teasels, to create our own clay hedgehogs. We used the spiky teasels to create the back of the hedgehog and then used clay to mould the body and head. We watched a short video to learn more about hedgehogs and how we might help them to thrive in our own gardens.

In maths, Year 2 have been working on solving multiplication number problems. The children demonstrated real understanding of what the questions were asking them to do and confidently used arrays of counters to find the answers. Year 1 have been looking at number patterns, particularly counting in 2s and 5s. All the children really enjoyed Mrs Teasdale’s number counting video, which made counting fun as well as energetic as the children danced and moved as they counted up to 100 in 2s and 5s. Very impressive!

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Friday 13th October 2017

Another busy week has flown by with lots of fun activities.In literacy we have started writing our Wizard stories and the children have produced some excellent openings. Oscar’s began “Once upon a time there was a happy, kind wizard called Merlin”. Lucinda started her story with “Once upon a time there was wise, sporty, old, whiny wizard. His name was Goggle Beard”. Fantastic, descriptive openings!In maths we have been looking at multiplication. Year 2 started looking at arrays (a way of sorting numbers into groups) and Year 1 have been adding three numbers. We used different strategies to do this, including spotting our number bonds to 10. Our number of the week for EYFS is 4 and Nathan has been doing lots of number hunts around the classroom finding 4.

We have been working hard rehearsing for our Harvest Festival. As part of our preparations we have continued with our topic work and have had a go at making our own finger puppets. We used semi-circle discs of felt and then shaped them into cones (great revision of shape!) before stitching them together. The children found it really challenging but the classroom was beautifully quiet with everyone concentrating so well.

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Friday 6th October 2017

Where has this week gone? Time is truly flying by! We have had an exciting week as on Tuesday we held our first Stay and Play Session. We were joined by five children and their parents who will be starting school in September and came to find out more about Gillamoor School. We had potion making, potato printing, crown making, dress the fairytale character and biscuit decorating! All the children had a great time and we look forward to the next one on the 8th November.

In Literacy we have made our own wizard story maps ready for writing our stories next week. The children also did some fantastic independent writing.

In Maths we have been continuing with number and Year 2 have been looking at splitting numbers into tens and units (partitioning) to subtract. EYFS have started number of the week and Nathan has been looking at all things that make the number 3! We all enjoyed looking at the Numberblocks episode for 3, with the older children refreshing their understanding of number: what makes 3?

We ended the week with some design and building. After looking at our own toys last week and comparing them with toys from the past, we have designed our own wooden toys and then had a go at constructing them. The children all really enjoyed the process and I hope you agree, produced some fantastic results.

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Friday 29th September 2017

In literacy this week we have been looking at wizards! We have been thinking about what they look like, where they might work and what they might need. This has led to lots of lovely writing using adjectives to describe and add interest to our writing. Oscar suggested that the wizard might have “a long beard reaching to his toes”. Jack B felt that he might need “mouldy hair” to use in his potions. What fantastic descriptions! We ended the week by painting a whole class story setting, in preparation for next week. Ours contains a forest, a river with a bridge and a castle set amongst mountains.

In maths Year 1 have been looking at 1 more and 1 less and they are becoming more confident in finding sequences in numbers. Nathan in reception has been working really hard looking at his numbers to 5 and has had a great time playing lots of number games.

We were lucky enough to have an opportunity to have a go at felt making on Monday. The Infants have created the backdrop to a wonderful piece called “Gillamoor Garden”. Here is the work in progress.

In R.E we had a great discussion about what makes us special. We all took turns in the hotseat and proved to be very confident about our own qualities!

We also shared “The Owl and the Pussycat” on Thursday to help celebrate National Poetry Day. The children really enjoyed the poem. Jack F spotted some rhyming words and Lucinda commented she enjoyed it because it told a story.

Finally as part of our topic, the children all brought in a favourite toy. We talked about them, what they were made of and what features they had and then compared them to the toys we had played with a week ago. Always good fun to be able to bring toys to school!

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22nd September 2017

This week in literacy, the Infants have been designing and labelling their own sea monster. We thought about what kind of sea monster we would like to create and used some adjectives to label our drawings. We have also looked at writing sentences this week, including how we can join sentences together using conjunctions.

In maths Year 1 have been looking at addition, particularly adding one and two digit numbers. Year 2 have been adding and subtracting also, but in tens.

As part of our topic “Let’s Play”, the Infants looked at toys and books from the past. On Monday, they had great fun trying out and discussing the differences between toys today and in the past.

Later in the week we compared children’s books of today and the past, looking at Superworm and Peter Rabbit. We also had a go at recreating a watercolour of Peter Rabbit, first sketching in pencil and then painting in watercolour. The results were fantastic and will be on display at the Kirbymoorside Show this weekend.

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15th September 2017

In literacy this week, the Infants have been learning about labels and captions and have started work on designing and labelling their own map! We have learned what a key is and found out a useful phrase to help us remember: the key helps unlock the map so we know what it is showing us.

In maths Year 1s have been working hard on their teen numbers which can sometimes be tricky to remember. We have been concentrating on the value of these numbers and have been using the numicon to help us. Year 2s have been looking at splitting numbers up into tens and units and were so successful with this that they started to look at three digit numbers too! Very impressive!

This week also saw Roald Dahl day and so we took the opportunity to look at George's Marvellous Medicine. The children had a go at drawing and writing their own recipes:

We also undertook some science and tried to make an exploding medicine just like George did. We used vinegar, food colouring, washing up liquid and bicarbonate of soda though, which are much more pleasant ingredients! We conducted two experiments and the children had a great time. Rufus predicted that altering the size of the top of the bottle would affect the result “It will come out quicker because the top is smaller.” Great prediction Rufus!

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Gillamoor C of E Primary School aims to create a secure and happy school community in which, to the best of his or her ability, each child acquires a firm foundation in all aspects of their development, following the Early Years Foundation Stage Curriculum and the National Curriculum.